Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen commissioned a report that found racial disparities in his office’s prosecutions and pledged further study to learn more about what’s behind them.

SAN JOSE — Half of the people in Santa Clara County charged with resisting arrest are Latino and 14 percent are black, far above their proportion of the population, according to data released Wednesday.

A report from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office also found similar disparities in the percentages of Latinos and blacks charged with misdemeanors and felonies.

The findings have prompted District Attorney Jeff Rosen to promise further study to identify and root out any systemic causes behind the inequities.

“A hard question is coming from our community and from communities across America: Is our justice system fair to everyone?” Rosen said in a statement. “One study cannot answer that question, but it is a step, here in our office and in our community, toward coming to grips with the troubling parts of our system where there is racial inequality.”

As part of the report, “Race and Prosecutions,” prosecutors and other DA staff compiled case data from 2013 to 2015 that showed, among other findings, that Latinos account for 44 percent of all felony defendants in the county and 46 percent of misdemeanor defendants, despite making up just 26 percent of the county’s population.

Similarly, blacks are over-represented by at least threefold, accounting for 11 percent of felony cases and 9 percent of misdemeanor cases while comprising 3 percent of the population.

Rosen commissioned the data gathering, which began in earnest in 2011 with the increased adoption of electronic record keeping, spurred in part by rising local and national scrutiny on the criminal-justice system over the past few years. Additionally, Rosen has partnered his office with BetaGov, a no-cost research firm housed at New York University to analyze the data and “design next-step studies to answer the questions raised by the data.”

Particularly striking to community leaders who sat through a presentation of the DA’s data Wednesday was the proportion of people charged with resisting arrest who were Latino and black — 50 percent and 14 percent respectively — a charge that critics say often obscures police clashes in minority neighborhoods.

“Resisting arrest is very subjective,” said Richard Konda, executive director of the Asian Law Alliance. “Anecdotally, we’ve heard from people who have been charged who say they are in fact the victims, that they’re the ones who are abused or treated roughly by police.”

Walter Katz, San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor, voiced similar concerns. He noted that in San Jose, the rate of resisting arrest charges almost mirrors the rate of use-of-force complaints filed with his office and the Internal Affairs unit of the San Jose Police Department.

“That matters a lot to us because those arrests for resisting police officers often come after a use of force,” Katz said. “We’re going to want to know a lot more about that particular line of numbers.”

Meanwhile, the DA’s report shows whites, Asians and Pacific Islanders are underrepresented in the data when it comes to felony and misdemeanor prosecutions. Whites make up 33 percent of the county’s population but account for 24 percent of felony defendants and 27 percent of misdemeanors; Asians and Pacific Islanders are 35 percent of the county population and comprise just 8 percent of felonies charged and 9 percent of misdemeanors.

Whites accounted for 24 percent of resisting arrest charges and Asians and Pacific Islanders made up 6 percent.

The findings parallel data compiled by the San Jose Police Department and analyzed last year by this newspaper, which found similar racial disparities in the frequency Latinos and blacks are stopped and detained on the street.

Katz said the data confirmed anecdotal impressions he’s gotten from residents, and hopes that the inertia created by the new report can extend into the sources of the cases presented to prosecutors — that is, police departments making the arrests.

“They found disparities that seemed real,” Katz said. “I think a lot of credit has to go to Jeff Rosen for even asking these questions, and being willing to look at the answers, even if they’re uncomfortable.”

Konda echoed the sentiment, saying having all the numbers out there could lead to better openness between prosecutors, police and residents.

“This is a good opportunity to have good discussions between community and law enforcement,” he said. “It’s a good first step.”

Robert Salonga covers crime and public safety for the Bay Area News Group and is based at The Mercury News. A San Jose native, he has a bachelor's degree from UCLA and a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland-College Park, but remains a Bruin at heart. His prior reporting stops include Washington, D.C. and Salinas. He is also a middling triathlete whose sole race goal is to be upright at the end. Contact Robert at 408-920-5002.

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